Injury to a bodily organ can elicit protective responses by the organ such that it is able to better protect itself should injurious events (i.e., insults) continue or re-occur. For example, a bout of kidney injury can evoke protective responses that, after an 18 hour lag time, protect the kidney against subsequent, more severe forms of kidney damage. This protection can last for an extended period of time (days to weeks). This protective phenomenon is known in the art as “ischemic preconditioning” or “acquired cytoresistance.”
One thought has been to use the phenomenon of acquired cytoresistance to preemptively protect organs, especially when a known insult is imminent. For example, the phenomenon could be induced to protect organs before an insult, such as exposure to surgery, cardiopulmonary bypass, or radiocontrast toxicity administrations. This approach has not been deployed into clinical use, however, because there has not been a mechanism to induce acquired cytoresistance in a controlled manner without causing an unacceptable injury to the organ that is to be protected.